While displays of mutual faith in longstanding alliances aren’t unusual at Davos (that’s the point of the entire World Economic Forum) this one was … weird.

Trump said he wanted to address the “false rumour” that he might not respect Britain, or May. And then he added, “We are very much joined at the hip when it comes to the military. We have the same ideas, the same ideals, and there is nothing that would happen to you that we won’t be there to fight for you, you know that.”

It was an odd thing to say given that there are no military threats to Britain right now, and the joint defence roles of the US and UK in NATO weren’t really in doubt.

The only way the meeting – staged entirely for the media – makes any sense is if you regard it as Trump trying to make peace, or even apologise, to May.

May didn’t take this lying down. In November she said, “It is wrong for the president to have done this.” His visit to the UK, planned for February was subsequently cancelled by Trump. It was an astonishing, high-level fallout given the longstanding special relationship between the two countries. When Trump is attacked he usually redoubles his insults against his attackers.

Hey presto! The president’s visit is now back on, for a date later this year. Doubtless, there were many officials inside the Trump Administration who reminded the president that you cannot simply trash-talk your oldest allies if you want them to remain allies. And thus Trump has caved, a rare political surrender from the “very stable genius.”

May appears to have tamed Trump. She is one of very few world leaders to have successfully brought him to heel (the other one might be Putin). Their Davos meeting might have been weird, but it counts as a diplomatic success for May.